Volume 22 Fall 2017 A newsletter for faculty and the University community published by the University of Chicago Library with support from the Libra Library Society Librarians and Faculty Collaborate on Digital Scholarship in the Social Sciences, Business, and Humanities BY RACHEL ROSENBERG OCIAL SCIENTISTS, HUMANISTS, AND Economics Richard Hornbeck Professor Hornbeck BUSINESS FACULTY across the University of explains—as important for (center) discusses the Chicago campus are rapidly adopting and inventing academic research as the census digitization process for the Census of Manufacturers new digital tools and techniques. Whether they seek data on individuals available currently through IPUMs and with Preservation Librarian to analyze 19th-century American manufacturing, Sherry Byrne (left) and Ancestry.com. Conducted every Sthe ruins of the ancient walled city of Sam’al, or the Head of Digitization transmission history of Hamlet, UChicago scholars and students decade from 1850 to 1900, it Kathleen Arthur. are employing new digital approaches to gathering, analyzing, included firm names, product preserving and sharing their data and scholarly findings. As they types, production quantities, and values for every establishment do so, Library staff members with expertise in everything from producing more than $500 worth of manufactured goods. digitization to GIS to digital data curation and archiving are And yet, to this point, the establishment-level data has developing innovative ways to collaborate with faculty to advance never been accessible to researchers in one location. Rather, digital scholarship. it has been scattered across the country in various archives, libraries, and historical societies, in formats ranging from Gathering and Digitizing Data from the Census of Manufacturers original handwritten records to microfilmed copies. That will change for data from 1850 to 1880, thanks to a collaborative THE U.S. CENSUS OF MANUFACTURERS has the potential digitization effort now underway, led by Professor Hornbeck, to be an internationally recognized resource, Professor of who has enlisted a team of professional and student research continued on page 6 FROM THE DIRECTOR The Changing Nature of Scholarship The advent of digital technology has opened up new horizons that have inspired scholars to transform the nature of their scholarship. From the rapid analysis of a human genome to the sharing of social science data sets to data mining vast quantities of text—scholars are continually developing new digital approaches to LAUNCHING creating, analyzing, and sharing their research. While digital scholarship activity among the University of Chicago faculty is growing, this new kind of scholarship comes with a challenge. Researchers must master a dizzying array of computational tools and techniques, they must think about how A CENTER to manage their data in ways that can be used by other researchers, and they must find solutions for archiving and sharing their data that meet the increasingly stringent requirements of funding FOR DIGITAL agencies. As faculty and students increasingly incorporate computational and algorithmic methods (e.g., text mining, network analysis, GIS and geo- spatial mapping, image analysis, data analysis) into their research process, they are looking for partners SCHOLARSHIP to provide the technical and human resources necessary to support their research activities, foster innovation, and facilitate cross-divisional Brenda L. Johnson collaboration. AT THE Digital scholarship encompasses all parts of this new life cycle of digital research, from the changing ways in which scholars collect and analyze data to their increased interest in new techniques for preserving and sharing that data. The Library is a natural hub for the exchange of ideas and the home of a great deal of expertise on archiving and sharing information. Accordingly, we LIBRARY are preparing to enhance our offerings and collaborations with faculty in each segment of this life cycle. BY BRENDA L. JOHNSON, Library Director and University Librarian Envisioning a Center for Digital Scholarship at the University of Chicago Library Faculty tell us that “a substantial barrier to the adoption of computational and digital methods at the University of Chicago has been the isolation of faculty members from colleagues who are experimenting with similar techniques. A physical space designated for such inquiry could help bridge this knowledge gap by providing an environment in which to explore the application of these techniques, receive hands-on training through tutorials or workshops, and benefit from informal collaboration with colleagues in other disciplines.” To meet this need, I am pleased to announce that we are beginning the work of launching a Center for Digital Scholarship at the Library, which will become a new nexus for intellectual energy and growth, providing a space that will support state-of-the-art technologies and services that facilitate the exploration of new methodologies, the analysis of complex data, the visualization of theoretical relationships, and the sharing of research results. Establishing such a transformative center at the Library will require identifying high priority needs and thinking creatively about how to resource those needs. Thanks to the generosity of Robert, AM’64, and Carolyn Nelson, AM’64, PhD’67, we will soon be able to hire a Director for the Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) who will develop a strategic vision, begin to build services, and coordinate with existing library staff. Our new CDS Director will jumpstart the process and position us to pursue additional funding to support a full suite of services. I am grateful to the Nelsons for their early support of the Library’s digital scholarship initiatives. THE2017-18 BOARD OF THE LIBRARY Catherine Pfister, Chair; Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Committee on Evolutionary Biology, and the College Vineet Arora, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Scholarship and Discovery, Department of Medicine Ronald Burt, Hobart W. Williams Professor of Sociology and Strategy The OCHRE database allows users to view photographs of artifacts (here, Ras Shamra Daniel Fabrycky, Assistant Professor, tablets) alongside associated machine-readable data such as descriptions, epigraphs, Departments of Astronomy and interpretive information, transliterations, and translations. Astrophysics, and Geophysics Brodwyn Fischer, Professor, We are now beginning a search for this Director and look forward to having this position Department of History and the filled in the coming months. As the Center develops over time, we expect that we will be able College and Director, Center for to facilitate a wide range of activities. Possibilities fall into three categories. Latin American Studies John Goldsmith, Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Scholarly Exploration and Collaboration • Professor, Departments of A combination of intellectual programming (symposia to host international scholars, Linguistics and Computer Science, tutorials, brown-bag presentations, workshops, faculty lectures), services (project and the College consultation, data archiving), and technology (scanning equipment, workstations equipped with GIS and other specialized software) will make the Center a hub that brings Ryan Kellogg, Professor, Harris School of Public Policy faculty, students, and scholars together in ways that spark interactions and facilitate cross-divisional collaborations. Faith Hillis, Associate Professor, Department of History and the • Graduate and Undergraduate Training College Faculty turn to the Library as a partner to supplement classroom instruction with Alison LaCroix, Robert Newton Reid workshops, targeted training, and onsite training by embedded librarians who can teach Professor of Law the skills necessary for students to succeed. In addition to supporting initiatives across Richard Neer, William B. Ogden campus to develop courses and programs that integrate new computational methods and Distinguished Service Professor theories into a wide range of disciplines, the Library has partnered with UChicagoGrad to of Art History, Cinema and Media provide fundamental digital scholarship skills needed by graduate students to become the Studies, and the College next generation of leaders in academia, industry, nonprofits, and government. • Project Incubation and Execution EX OFFICIO The Center for Digital Scholarship will provide services, such as project consultations, Robert J. Zimmer, President and data acquisition and conversion, workshops in tools and techniques, and core technical Trustee of the University infrastructure. Researchers would benefit from guidance on strategies for organizing and executing digital project work and from assistance by staff with the experience and Daniel Diermeier, Provost networks that can facilitate project components that are new to the researcher. Examples of such projects are the Library’s collaboration with Chicago Booth’s Richard Hornbeck Cole Camplese, Associate Vice on the location and digitization of 19th-century manufacturing data and with the Oriental President and Chief Information Technology Officer Institute’s David Schloen on the OCHRE database system (see story, pages 1 and 6, and screenshot above). Ingrid Gould, Associate Provost for Faculty and Student Affairs I look forward to being joined by the new Director of the Center for Digital Scholarship, who Brenda L. Johnson, Library Director will collaborate with colleagues